Generating Mindfulness

The way we start producing the medicine of mindfulness is by stopping
and taking a conscious breath, giving our complete attention to
our in-breath and our out-breath. When we stop and take a breath in
this way, we unite body and mind and come back home to ourselves.
We feel our bodies more fully. We are truly alive only when the mind is
with the body. The great news is that oneness of body and mind can be
realized just by one in-breath. Maybe we have not been kind enough to
our body for some time. Recognizing the tension, the pain, the stress
in our body, we can bathe it in our mindful awareness, and that is the
beginning of healing.
If we take care of the suffering inside us, we have more clarity,
energy, and strength to help address the suffering violence, poverty,
and inequity of our loved ones as well as the suffering in our community
and the world. If, however, we are preoccupied with the fear and
despair in us, we can’t help remove the suffering of others. There is an
art to suffering well. If we know how to take care of our suffering, we
not only suffer much, much less, we also create more happiness around
us and in the world.